Description

The discovery of TRAIL (TNF Related Apoptosis Inducing Ligand), also referred to as Apo-2, is in an era of intense research because TRAIL induces many cancer cells to undergo programmed cell death (apoptosis), while having no effect on normal cells. This important protein deserves extensive review at a formative time in the devlopement of our knowledge concerning its mechanism of action and the ways in which it can be used as a cancer chemotherapeutic agent. Consequently, this voume reviews the current status of research on TRAIL.

Gerald Litwack

Trained in biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Dr. Litwack worked on enzymology and the effects of hormones on enzyme systems. Then he was a Postdoctoral Fellow of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis at the Biochemical Institute of the Sorbonne in Paris. Dr. Litwack's first position was as Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at Rutgers University in 1954. Six years later, he joined the University of Pennsylvania as associate professor and four years later went to the Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology, as full professor, eventually becoming Deputy Director of the Institute. In 1991, he accepted the Chair of Pharmacology at Thomas Jefferson University where he is also Deputy Director of the Jefferson Cancer Institute and Associate Director for Basic Science in the Jefferson Cancer Center. Dr. Litwack's work has been in the area of mechanisms of steroid receptor action involving especially the glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid receptors, immunophi.